Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka: The Operation Reinhard Death Camps

by Yitzhak Arad

  33

  The Underground in Treblinka

  During the early months of 1943, the level of activity in Treblinka underwent a drastic change. A few transports still arrived from Bialystok and Warsaw in January, but by the end of the month and during February and March they ceased almost entirely. The extermination of the Jews in the General Government and Bialystok General District had been completed with the exception of a small number of Jews left in some of the ghettos and in a few labor camps. The huge piles of belongings stacked in Treblinka’s Sorting Square, which had become part of the camp’s routine appearance, now disappeared; the storage barracks emptied out, too. Everything was packed and sent by train to Germany and elsewhere. Without transports, the prisoners’ workload dropped, particularly in the Lower Camp, where they had been involved in handling the deportees and their belongings. The prisoners were aware of the new situation, and harbored suspicions that without transports and work for them, the camp would be eliminated. Rumors of an impending selection made the rounds of the prisoners in the Lower Camp.

  A typhus epidemic in the camp, which claimed dozens of victims every day, also darkened the prisoners’ spirits. And news of German losses at the various fronts, and reports from the battle at Stalingrad, which reached the prisoners through those who worked in jobs where they managed to steal an occasional look at a newspaper, increased their fears that, with the end of the Third Reich, they, too—eyewitnesses to Nazi Germany’s crimes—would be eliminated.1 This new sense of an impending end was particularly acute in the Lower Camp, where the prisoners lacked full employment. The situation was different in the extermination area, since at about this time, following Himmler’s visit to the camp, the prisoners there were employed in opening the mass graves and burning the corpses.

  Against this new situation, the prisoners began to discuss both possible ways of rescuing themselves and the need to bring Treblinka and its horrors to the world’s attention before it was too late. They sat in their closed barracks during the long winter evenings and analyzed their situation over and over, discussing the instances of escape and resistance that had occurred until then. It was clear that quiet escapes by individuals or small groups of prisoners were no longer viable; the most recent attempts had failed, night lighting and security in the camp had both been enhanced, and the reprisals and punishments inflicted on the prisoners for escape attempts worked against this option.

  These conversations and appraisals of the situation prompted several prisoner groups to come to the conclusion that the only way to save themselves was through a large-scale organization aimed at overpowering the camp security guards and allowing a subsequent mass escape. These prisoners estimated that since they were superior in numbers to the Germans and Ukrainians in the camp—close to 1,000 against some 150—and since for extended periods during the day the guards mixed with the prisoners, they could, with the proper planning and organization, stage a revolt, overcome the guards, and escape. Such a plan had a chance for success. Oscar Strawczinski writes:

  In the first months of winter, while we were a small group in the carpentry shop, Mordechai came up with the idea of resistance and escape. There were Germans who came nearly every evening to the tailor shop to listen to [the prisoner orchestra’s] music, and the idea was that a combat team would ambush these Germans, kill them quietly and take their weapons. One of the team would then put on a German uniform and call the Ukrainian guards who were near the Jewish barracks, one by one. As they entered the hut they, too, would be killed silently. With the guards eliminated, the prisoners would be summoned to leave their huts and escape from the camp. . . . The plan sounded altogether too fantastic and gained few supporters, but with-in a short time the idea of revolt had taken root.2

  As a result of these conversations and brainstorming sessions, by late February/early March a small group had formed which took upon itself the initiative of establishing an Underground, acquiring weapons, and organizing a revolt and escape from the camp. The group, called the “Organizing Committee,” included the following men: Dr. Julian (Ilya) Chorazycki from Warsaw, about age fifty-seven, a former captain in the Polish Army, who, as a physician, treated the SS and worked in their clinic; Ze’ev Korland, about fifty, the capo of the Lazarett; Zialo Bloch from Czechoslovakia, who had come to Treblinka from Theresienstadt, was a former lieutenant in the Czech army and at Treblinka headed the work team at Sorting Square; the agronomist Sadovits from Warsaw; and Salzberg from Kielce, who worked in the camp as a tailor. Shortly after the Underground was established, Adolf Freidman, in his thirties, from Lodz, also joined. Several testimonies place him in Palestine and the Foreign Legion before the war. In Treblinka he headed a work team at Sorting Square.3 The Organizing Committee had several additional members whose identities are clouded by conflicting accounts.

  All of the Organizing Committee members came from the “court Jews,” held central jobs among the prisoners, and were of the camp’s “elite.” Most were among the intelligentsia, and were relatively old. The central figure in the Organizing Committee was Dr. Chorazycki. Lieutenant Zialo Bloch, an energetic man with leadership qualities, was to handle the military aspects of the organization.

  But as soon as the Underground began its work, in the second half of March 1943, it suffered a serious loss. Zialo Bloch and Adolf Freidman were transferred to the extermination area. They and other prisoners were transferred from the Lower Camp because the workload there had dropped due to the lack of transports, while in the extermination area, the cremating of the corpses required additional manpower.4

  In the beginning, the camp Underground comprised the members of the Organizing Committee and a group of their close friends—a total of ten to fifteen persons. For conspiratorial reasons, the Organizing Committee did not attach great importance to the task of enlarging the Underground, and preferred to concern itself with the problem of acquiring weapons. The first thoughts about how to secure arms focussed on purchasing them outside the camp.

  The coordination of the weapons procurement activity was taken on by Dr. Chorazycki. Money for purchasing weapons was no problem. While sorting the victims’ clothing and belongings, the prisoners would often find quantities of money, gold, and valuables; a portion of this they turned in to the camp authorities in accordance with regulations, while another portion would be sequestered and hidden in the barracks and workshops, or else buried. Another source of money was the “gold Jews,” through whose hands passed the money, gold, and valuables that were turned over to the camp authorities.

  Attempts to purchase arms were made through the “camouflage team,” whose members would go outside the camp to the nearby forests to cut branches for camouflaging the barbed-wire fences. Occasionally they would come into contact with farmers from the neighborhood and purchase food to smuggle back into the camp. They hoped the same could be done with arms. But these efforts did not bear results.

  Simultaneously, attempts were made to procure weapons from outside the camp through the Ukrainian guards. Some of the capos and other Jewish prisoners had cultivated ties with Ukrainians who were prepared, for suitable remuneration, to bring food into the camp from the outside. Several attempts were made to obtain weapons in this way. The Ukrainians, however, while prepared to take the money, did not produce guns; still, they refrained from informing on these activities. All they were interested in was keeping the money for themselves.5

  During one of these attempts to procure weapons, Dr. Chorazycki paid with his life. He was in contact with a Ukrainian through whom an attempt was made to buy guns, and this required that he handle large sums of money. One day in the first half of April 1943, in the infirmary where he worked, Chorazycki received a considerable sum for arms purchases from the “gold Jews” who worked in a nearby hut. Unexpectedly, Deputy Camp Commander Kurt Franz entered the infirmary shortly afterward. Chorazycki quickly tried to stuff the money into the pocket of his coat, which was hanging on the wall, but Franz noticed the money sticking
out of the pocket and removed it. Chorazycki, realizing that he now had nothing to lose, grabbed a surgical knife and rushed Franz. The two struggled and fell to the floor. The younger and stronger Franz quickly gained the upper hand, but Chorazycki was able to free himself long enough to jump out of the window. As he did so, he removed a small vial from his pocket, drank the contents, and fell, unconscious. Other accounts have Franz escaping or being pushed outside the infirmary, and Chorazycki swallowing the poison while still inside the barrack.6

  SS men and Ukrainian guards were called to the scene. They tried to revive Chorazycki so they could interrogate him concerning the source and purpose of the money. They suspected Chorazycki of planning an escape from the camp together with other prisoners, and assumed the money was intended for use after the escape. The physician-prisoner Dr. Irena Levkovski, who worked with Chorazycki in the infirmary, was brought in. SS Scharführer Suchomel, who accompanied her, relates: “The old witch [the doctor] pretended she couldn’t walk fast. When we did arrive, Chorazycki’s eyes were open; he was still alive. The doctor pumped out his stomach, but Chorazycki did not recover. Franz was seething with anger.”7 Chorazycki’s body, after being abused, was taken to the Lazarett and thrown into the cremation ditch.

  The Germans suspected the “gold Jews” of being the source of the illicit money and searched their barrack for more, but to no avail. The “gold Jews” were assembled near the Lazarett, beaten, and interrogated concerning their ties with Chorazycki, but they denied everything. The SS men selected eight “gold Jews” and ordered them to undress. Franz took one of them to the Lazarett, forcing him to jump like a frog. At the Lazarett, Franz stood the man beside the ditch and threatened to shoot him unless he revealed the truth. The man claimed he knew nothing. Franz left him at the Lazarett and forced the others through a similar routine. All denied any connection with Chorazycki and the money he had. Ultimately they were all freed.8 The SS still required their services.

  Chorazycki’s death was a hard blow to the Underground. By virtue of his character and his stature in the camp as the SS personnel’s physician, he had been the central figure in the Organizing Committee. Despite the fact that in the daily life of the camp he had been detached from the main body of prisoners, they had respected him highly. He had been capable of influencing other figures from the prisoner “elite” to join the Underground and contribute money for purchasing arms. His bravery in dying, not without a struggle, also won the prisoners’ respect.

  In spite of Chorazycki’s death and Zialo Bloch’s transfer to the other part of the camp, the Organizing Committee continued with preparations for the uprising. The “camp elder,” Rakowski, was now brought in on the secret Underground activity. The members of the Underground, who numbered several score, were organized into a number of groups.9

  The efforts to procure weapons continued, and this time the Underground was luckier. One day, a lock broke on the door of the arms storeroom located between the two SS barracks. One of the prisoners, a locksmith, who was in touch with the Organizing Committee, was ordered by the Germans to repair the lock. The door (or possibly only the lock) was brought to the locksmith’s shop, and in the course of repairing it, a spare key was made and passed on to the Organizing Committee.10

  In the latter part of April 1943, the Organizing Committee decided to remove weapons from the storeroom. If the operation succeeded, they would initiate a revolt.

  The firearms in the storeroom could only be removed during those daylight hours when the SS men were not in their barracks and the Ukrainian guards were not stationed in the vicinity. During the day these barracks were also visited occasionally by Polish and Ukrainian girls who worked in the SS mess hall and were sent to clean the rooms, and by a group of Jewish boys called “putzers” (cleaners) who shined the boots and cleaned the uniforms of the SS. It was this group of four boys, led by a youth named Marcus from Warsaw, which was assigned the task of removing the weapons from the storeroom.

  On the designated day, the Underground members were alerted at their work stations, and they awaited developments anxiously. The action was carried out successfully; two boxes of hand grenades were brought to the shoemaker’s shop near the prisoners’ barracks and were received by members of the Organizing Committee. But when they were opened, it was discovered that the grenades lacked detonators. The boys had not been aware that the Germans stored the detonators separately. The entire dangerous operation had been in vain. It was decided to return the grenades to the storeroom immediately, before the Germans could discover that they were missing. The boys succeeded in returning them.11

  The various bits of evidence available offer no details as to how the grenades were removed and returned, or the identity of the Organizing Committee members who handled the operation. Nor are any details known concerning the revolt plan; it appears as if the entire affair of the removal of the arms and the uprising was an improvisation and had neither a proper plan nor suitable preparations.12

  The Underground activists, whose expectations had risen as preparations progressed, were deeply disappointed. Although there were informers in the camp who must have “smelled” something going on, the entire affair of the smuggled grenades never became known to camp authorities.

  Following the postponement of the uprising, there was a short period of inactivity. Then, again, thoughts of individual or small-group escapes began to take form. The “camp elder,” Rakowski, decided to organize a group of some fifteen prisoners, among them Chesia Mendel, who was known to be his mistress, to escape from the camp in late April/early May 1943. Rakowski had developed ties with two Ukrainians who brought him food from outside the camp for a suitable payment. For the right bribe, these Ukrainians now agreed to help him escape.

  In the course of his preparations, Rakowski collected a large sum of money and gold and hid it in the wall of the capos’ barracks. The plan called for the preparation in advance of a camouflaged exit through the outer wall of the tailor shop, and the escape was fixed for a night when the two bribed Ukrainians were scheduled to stand guard. The escapees were to hide in the tailor shop before the prisoners were locked in their barracks. During the night, the two Ukrainians would approach the shop’s outer wall and signal the prisoners to escape through the opening they had prepared. The Ukrainians would lead the escapees through the camp’s east fence and possibly supply them with arms.

  Before these preparations had been completed, however, an incident occurred which upset the entire plan. One morning, Scharführer August Miete entered the capos’ barracks and found Rakowski with his friend Chesia, eating a breakfast of vodka, white bread, and bacon. Miete remarked mockingly, “So, Rakowski, you, too, are blackmarketeering?” and left the room. Rakowski finished his breakfast and went out to tour the camp. A short while later, Miete returned to Rakowski’s barrack with two Ukrainians and, after a thorough search, found money, gold, and valuables hidden in the walls. Rakowski, confronted with the evidence, denied any connection to the hoard and claimed that Dr. Chorazycki, who had died a few weeks previously and who had also lived in the room, must have hidden the money. Rakowski was arrested and, at dusk, taken to the Lazarett and murdered. Galewski replaced him as “camp elder,” as he had preceded Rakowski in this post and had been replaced by him when he came down with typhus, from which he had since recovered.13

  In early May 1943, transports began to arrive at Treblinka from the Warsaw ghetto, after the revolt against the Germans there. The transports were sent directly to the gas chambers, but a few hundred men and women were selected to remain and work in the Lower Camp and the extermination area, to replace those who had died in the typhus epidemic.

  One of the last transports from the Warsaw ghetto included several captured rebels who managed to smuggle in a hand grenade concealed in their clothing. When they were brought to Transport Square and ordered to undress, one of them removed the grenade and threw it into the square. What ensued is clouded in conflicting versions. One testimony claim
s that the grenade killed one Ukrainian and wounded two Ukrainians, a German, and three Jews from the “reds.” Several Jews who had just arrived in the transport and were still in the square were also wounded. For a few minutes confusion reigned, with SS men and Ukrainians running in every direction. Then they regained control over the situation and killed the grenade throwers on the spot with blows from their rifle butts. According to another version, only three Jews from the “reds” and several Jews from the transport were wounded. The wounded “reds” were taken to the prisoners infirmary—which had been established during the typhus epidemic—and were treated until they recovered from their wounds. They even received a visit from Kurt Franz and Küttner.14

  News of the Warsaw ghetto uprising was a boost to the morale of many in the camp and strengthened their will to revolt. Yet others, in contrast, felt deflated by the descriptions of the repression of the uprising, the thousands of victims, and the fact that no help came from outside. Some Jews who had fled the ghetto during the uprising and sought shelter in the Aryan quarters of Warsaw were caught and brought to Treblinka. Their tales of the enmity they encountered outside the ghetto, of the Poles who informed on them to the police, only added to the general depression. Many asked themselves what would happen if and when they rose up and succeeded in escaping from the camp—where would they turn, and how would they find shelter?15

  After the last transports from the Warsaw ghetto, in May 1943, there was another extended cessation of transports to Treblinka. In the Lower Camp there remained little to do by way of sorting and packing, and most of the prisoners were employed in general utility work and in construction and camp maintenance—paving roads, reinforcing fences, gardening, and so on. Shmuel Wilenberg described the situation in Treblinka: